If you thought the new icons in iOS 7 were nauseating, then try this one on for size: It’s the RoboRoach, a kit that turns any cockroach into a cyborg you can control from your iPhone. Ugh.
Weirder still, the RoboRoach is on Kickstarter. It’s being marketed as a science project for schools, but we all know how it’ll really end up being used.
It works by putting a small Bluetooth-enabled backpack on the roach, and then hooking this up to wires which have been surgically inserted into the cockroach’s antennae. The pack pulses electricity into the antennae to steer the insect left or right.
Why does this work? Apparently a roach uses its antennae to steer itself, and the electrical impulses trick its tiny roach brain into thinking it has encounter an obstacle ann must turn away from it.
I hate roaches. They’re freaky, death-defying monsters that deserve no mercy. But even I’m a little squeamish about this project. Maybe I just can’t see myself strapping down a filthy roach to insert wires into its head-aerials. Then again, with a fleet of these things I could finally get revenge on my neighbor, who once borrowed my key for the roof terrace for “ten minutes” and didn’t give it back for three hours. Three! Revenge will be mine…
The minimum Kickstarter pitch to get yourself a RoboRoach kit is $100.
Source: Kickstarter
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
3 responses to “Remote Control Cockroaches With Your iPhone, Only Minimal Surgery Required”
you know what’s nauseating? Cult of Mac’s coverage of ios7. When did you guys switch teams?
I find this kind of thing super-creepy. Controlling a living being even a lowly cockroach seems wrong to me.
Yuck